Something that you can do in the C language that C++ programmers cannot is employ the shift operators. These operators, << and >>, serve as I/O operators in C++. In C, however, they can be used to manipulate values at the bit level in C, which is part of the C language’s mid-level heritage.
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It’s pretty safe to avoid your first instinct when it comes to dividing two integers. That first instinct is most likely to typecast the int values as float. That works, and many times it can be the best solution, but it’s not always the solution.
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The unary * operator is used both to declare a pointer and access the value at that pointer’s location. When the value is the address of another pointer, two * unary operators are used. When the value is the address of an address of an address of an address, then four * unary operators are used. I kid you not.
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The pointer-to-a-pointer variable does have a purpose, but fortunately it’s a very specific and rare purpose. And, no, that purpose isn’t to make you wish you had learned to program in Java.
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The ** notation can really make a beginning C programmer blanch. In fact, a lot of Java programmers probably fled from the C language just after the initial lesson on pointers. They’d turn to stone even to glance at a variable like **blorf. You don’t need to cower under a desk with those people.
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Here’s a scary thing for most people: **blorf. No, not the name blorf, although it’s one of my favorite made-up words. What drives programmers insane — and all programmers, not just C programmers — are those double disaster asterisks.
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It’s all come to this: Gathering up the individual functions necessary to code a program that outputs the current month, formatted, with the proper number of days for February. Coincidentally, this post is published in February.
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Last week’s Lesson demonstrates a pretty decent calendar program. It works for every month of the year that has 31 days. Obviously that’s not every month, so more fine tuning must be done, especially to deal with the variable number of days in February.
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With an algorithm that properly returns the first day of the month, the next step in creating a calendar is to display that first week, and then all subsequent weeks. Sounds easy, right?
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To create a calendar, you start with the first day of the month. Knowing which weekday is the first of the month is vital to your success.
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